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Storms Fail To Dampen Racing At Ocala

. Posted in Racing News

Any betting person would have put money on a rainout for Friday night at Ocala Speedway had they been anywhere near the place at around 5 PM that afternoon, but despite a brief heavy downpour plus plenty of thunder and lightning, the water truck still needed to be called to duty before four divisions could hit the clay. The Colortyme Rentals Modifieds, Tee Pee Tire Hobby Stocks, Amsoil V8 Thunder Stocks, and the Gladiators replaced nature's storminess with their own brand of rock and roll, and kept the crowd cheering throughout the night.

The Tee Pee Tire Hobby Stocks were anointed the division to open feature racing, and Daniel Miller Jr wasted no time in declaring that the 99 machine was the one to beat. While Cory Hupp gave him a fight over it, Miller grabbed the lead and fended off Hupp's efforts while points leader Dean Jarvis sparred with a few others behind them. Jarvis had his hands full with a determined Philip Brown, who came to Ocala speedway looking to run at the front but had to get past Jarvis in order to get there. Meanwhile Heath Walker was fighting to get into the top five and finally achieved that status, then immediately developed issues on the back stretch that ended his night.

After some struggles in the mid season, Daniel Miller Jr has come on strong the last two outings, and scored another convincing win on Friday night with Cory Hupp in fast pursuit for second place. Dean Jarvis had a fight on his hands the entire race but came home in the third spot, and Philip Brown grabbed fourth place just behind him. And after deliberately starting at the rear in his new race car, Paul Combast finally got a feel for his new Hobby Stock and drove it to a fifth place finish.

Ocala's Gladiator Division had reason to get aggressive as their points leader, Casey Feaster, was MIA on the night, and with the Gladiators running second on the night's program, they got to have a feeding frenzy over Feaster's points lead with everyone watching. The result was a race that featured lots of contact and gave the fans plenty to cheer about. Larry Langston took control early, and along with Steven Cox they dominated almost the entire race. Meanwhile Steven Johnson had another round of lousy luck befall him, as he failed to turn left and plowed into the turn one wall early on.

Langston beat everyone to the checkers as Cox and Matt Shea squabbled over the second spot. Matt Shea won that battle in the last 50 feet of the race, which had a definite effect on what would happen later. Langston's celebration lasted only as long as it took for him to arrive in tech, where his car was disqualified and Matt Shea was declared the race winner. That brought Steven Cox up to second place, and then a second technical DQ for Jerry Taylor brought Devin Walker up to third place. Kathie Fisher moved up two spots to fourth place, and Ken McCloud climbed to fifth.

As the Amsoil V8 Thunder Stocks began their 20 lap adventure, Scott Mooers looked to have the race figured out as he rocketed to the lead and tried to drive away. But as is usually the case with the Thunder Stocks, contact comes with the territory and yellow flags tend to keep everyone in touch with the lead pack. Michael Stalnaker had what looked like an absolutely atrocious starting position in the 14th spot, but the green flag was his signal to begin an often frustrating, but determined trek toward the front.

Things came to an abrupt halt on lap 6 when Glenn Vincent got out of shape in turn four, slammed the wall, then flipped his car down the frontstretch in a spectacular mishap. That drew a red flag and certainly got the fans' attention as the car lay on its top against the wall just short of the flagstand, but Vincent managed to climb out and make his way on foot back to the pits while the track crew righted what was left of the car and dragged it out of the way.

Michael Stalnaker never gave up in his quest to chase down Scott Mooers, gaining 13 positions and with five laps remaining in the race was right up to Mooers' back bumper. After a brief caution, the two had three laps to settle the score, and Stalnaker gave Mooers more than he could handle. Stalnaker made the pass cleanly on the white flag lap, and with Mooers all but under his car Michael Stalnaker registered a hard fought win with Mooers settling for second place. Eddie Lake had been in the fight up front for most of the night, but came home in the third spot after Mooers and Stalnaker's battle developed. Willard Driggers followed Stalnaker through the field and gained 19 positions to finish fourth, while Jerrid Bennett had another rough night and survived to place fifth.

The Colortyme Rentals Modifieds had all sorts of problems just completing the first lap of their feature race, as tangles and mishaps, including Larry Mott's wild ride on top of the turn two wall, resulted in 4 separate complete restarts. But Wayne Hammond and Jeff Mathews remained on the front row throughout it all, and by the time that they actually got to complete a lap both had run through their respective bags of starting tricks.

Hammond and Mathews exchanged the lead early on, but on lap 8 Hammond careened into the turn two wall as the caution flew for a separate incident on the opposite end of the track. The front end of Hammond's car bounced up and onto the wall, causing enough damage that it was towed to the pits for the night, and leaving Roger Crouse and Jamie Carter to find a way to deal with Mathews. Carter passed Crouse and went to work on Mathews, but "The Repo Man" held fast and took the win. Jamie Carter was second, while Kent Corbin recovered from an earlier mishap to climb back to third place. Tim Zackery also had to overcome some adversity in his fourth place posting, and Roger Crouse slid back to fifth late in the race.

Ocala Speedway will be back in action on August 6th before taking a summer break, with exciting racing from the Late Models, the Amsoil V8 Thunder Stocks, the Mini Stocks, and the Gladiators. The summer break will last for three weeks, with racing returning on September 3rd. Keep an eye on www.OcalaSpeedway.com as some exciting additions to the racing schedule will be announced during the coming weeks.

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